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The Blue Jays return to the scene of the crime on Friday to continue what for them has become a Quixotic journey through the 2013 season.

The hope as last expressed by manager John Gibbons is that the four-day all-star break will provide his underachieving troops with a much-needed mental break, that they will return refreshed and be ready to launch a second-half comeback that will move them into contention for a post-season berth.

"These four days will be good for us, a little breather, regroup," Gibbons said last Sunday following the Blue Jays' loss to Baltimore, their 13th defeat in their past 20 games. "We'll find out what we're made of and how good we are in the second half. We need everybody to kick it in in the second half."

Dream on.

To aid them in their quest, the Jays have been presented with a 10-game home stretch that once and for all should determine which way their season will go.

Mathematics, though, shows it likely to be already lost.

The Jays hit the break with a 45-49 record and sit dead last in the East. General manager Alex Anthopoulos has yet to waive the white flag and likes to look at the loss column which shows them to be eight games back of the Texas Rangers, the current holders of the second wild-card spot.

Being eight games back is not an impossible number to overcome, but the Rangers are not the only team the Jays have to overcome.

Right now, the Rangers are 54-41 for a winning percentage of .568. If they maintain that pace through the end of the season, and that's hardly an onerous task, they will finish with 92 wins.

Given that the Jays have just 68 games remaining, that means for them to win 93 games they would have to go 48-20 the rest of the way -- or play at a .705 clip, win seven out of every 10 games.

Given their uninspired play and the dreadful starting pitching, winning 48 of their remaining games seems an absurd notion.

Looking at it another way, just which teams ahead of them in the East, are they better than? Exactly.

The Jays have proven they can't beat Tampa Bay and it's the Rays they play for three games beginning Friday. The Jays have held their own against both Boston and Baltimore but playing those teams to a draw doesn't allow them to gain any ground.

The Yankees have been ravaged by injuries but this season they have placed a hex on the Jays and the result is that the Bronx Bombers have run up an 8-1 record against them this season. Try and figure that one out?

For the Jays to overcome the opposition in the East they need three of them to collapse and that doesn't seem likely.

So what to do?

The July 31 non-waiver trade deadline is approaching rapidly and the likelihood is that the Jays will do next to nothing.

There has been a lot of rumours suggesting that the Jays are very much in the running to obtain Chicago Cubs right-hander Matt Garza, but trail the Rangers in pursuit of the starter.

Anthopoulos, though, stated last week that he has no interest at all in obtaining a rental player -- a player who is headed for free agency next off-season -- and that is exactly what Garza is.

Garza will command a hefty package of top prospects, which is something the Jays are lacking in these days. A lot of their top minor-league talent was shipped away in the off-season moves and it's unlikely that Anthopoulos will move the few that remain to keep dreaming the impossible dream.

As for the Jays being sellers, that's unlikely too.

Right-hander Josh Johnson, who has just one win in 12 starts and is a free agent this off-season, has been mentioned as a likely candidate to be moved.

Anthopoulos, though said that's unlikely, that the Jays will keep him and likely make him a qualifying offer in the off-season. If he stays, great. If he signs somewhere else, the Jays would receive a compensatory pick in the 2014 June draft which would bring them a player with more potential than a mediocre prospect from anoher organization which is all that Johnson would fetch now.

So, if the odds say the Jays are going nowhere in the second half, and likely will not be involved in trades of significance, just what is there to look forward to over the remaining 21/2 months?

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Blue Jays' Quixotic journey continues

The Blue Jays return to the scene of the crime on Friday to continue what for them has become a Quixotic journey through the 2013 season.

The hope as last expressed by manager John Gibbons is that the four-day all-star break will provide his underachieving troops with a much-needed mental break, that they will return refreshed and be ready to launch a second-half comeback that will move them into contention for a post-season berth.

"These four days will be good for us, a little breather, regroup," Gibbons said last Sunday following the Blue Jays' loss to Baltimore, their 13th defeat in their past 20 games. "We'll find out what we're made of and how good we are in the second half. We need everybody to kick it in in the second half."